Nozomi's Las Vegas Vacation
by eri-loves-nozomi
Summary: Written in honor of the recent release of the UR Nozomi (Las Vegas Edition). Muse goes on a little vacation. Will contain mentions of: NozoEri, RinPana, NicoMaki, KotoUmi, TsubaHono, Alpacas, Elvis


**A/N: I was originally holding on to this until I completely finished the whole thing, but it was getting to be too long. I'm one third of the way through writing part 2, but since I'm doing an accompanying art photo for each section (artwork is posted on my blog), its taking longer than normal. This will be three parts (and one extra story). Despite the title, the focus will not be on Nozomi for most of it. I tried to focus a section on what each of the girls ended up doing while they were on vacation.**

* * *

Summer vacation was coming and the members of the idol group, Muse, wanted to go somewhere fun and interesting, but no matter how much they talked about it, they couldn't agree on a place to go. The upcoming trip was being funded for the most part by the parents of Nishikino Maki, but all of the girls had volunteered something so that no one would feel as if they weren't contributing. They only needed to decide on a destination, and everything else could be quickly taken care of.

Everyone had different ideas about where they should go, and the only thing that any of them agreed on was that they should all be together. Unable to come up with a suitable locale that everyone accepted, the latest meeting was turning out to be just as useless as all the others.

"Let's have a contest nyah!" Hoshizora Rin practically bounced out of her seat as she enthusiastically told everyone in the room about the idea she just had. "The winner gets to decide where we go!"

That got the whole group's attention. It wasn't a bad idea at all, and they were running out of time. Koizumi Hanayo smiled with a hint of relief as she listened to Rin continue on in the seat next to her about how much fun it would be to hold a tournament and play games together. Hanayo was prone to bouts of extreme nervousness and while being involved in a tournament didn't sound like something she would look forward too, she would be grateful for the debate to be over and for everyone to start getting along again.

"I don't think we have the time or resources to hold our own sports tournament, but the idea of holding some sort of contest to decide isn't a bad one…how about it?" Ayase Eri, who took turns conducting the meetings with Yazawa Nico, looked expectantly at Nico first and then let her questioning gaze sweep across the table, finally coming to rest on Toujou Nozomi, who gave her a warm smile. Eri momentarily forgot what she had been thinking about as she returned Nozomi's smile with one of her own.

There weren't any objections to the contest idea, but that left them with having to come up with ideas about what sort of contest to hold and how to fairly judge the winner. The room filled with the muted hum of many people talking amongst themselves as everyone thought about and discussed amongst themselves ideas about what sort of contest to have.

"That's it!" Nico stood suddenly, bumping the table in front of her and startling Kousaka Honoka, who had been attempting to demonstrate to her childhood friends, Sonoda Umi and Minami Kotori, her own contest idea, which somehow involved getting Umi to take off her neck ribbon. Honoka fell out of her chair and Umi took the opportunity to switch seats with Maki, while quickly retying her ribbon and mumbling under her breath about 'Honoka's indecent ideas'.

After Kotori had helped Honoka back into her chair and Nico felt that she had everyone's full attention, she laid out the awesome plan that could only be thought of by a number one idol. They would let the fans decide.

* * *

 ** _"The fans should never be trusted with important decisions." -By Nico_**

* * *

The result of the fan poll was overwhelmingly in favor of letting Nozomi decide the destination for their vacation. Nozomi had always wanted to test her spiritual powers with real games of chance, so when she found out that it was her choice, she barely hesitated to announce that she wanted to go to the international gambling city, Las Vegas, Nevada, in the United States.

The only reason Nozomi had even hesitated the slightest bit was because she knew that Eri had really wanted to take them all to her home town in Russia and introduce them to her extended family. She felt the slightest twinge of guilt when she looked at Eri after the announcement, but she pushed it down. She was determined to go to Las Vegas and get into a casino to do some gambling. Nozomi was going to win enough money from the casino to not only take Eri back to Russia to visit her family, but to impress said family with her ability to support Eri both emotionally and financially. She called it her 'gain the family's blessing before proposing' plan.

The hotel that Maki's mother booked for them was conveniently attached to a large casino, so it turned out to be much easier than Nozomi had thought it would be to slip onto the casino's gaming floor without being carded and turned away. Despite being the oldest, Nozomi, Eri, and Nico were all seventeen and therefore not quite old enough to gamble legally. Everyone else was even younger, but that wasn't going to stop them from trying out the games at least once.

The morning of the day after they arrived, the members of Muse all had breakfast together in the hotel restaurant and then split up to explore and sight-see. Nozomi, wanting to win as much as she could without Eri finding out, declined several invitations to join the others with their exploration. She was unable to slip away without first promising to meet Eri for a lunch date, but as soon as she gave her word to meet her, Eri squeezed her hand once and let her go with a happy smile.

Looking around at all the possible games she could start with, Nozomi bypassed the slots as being too random. She wasn't certain that her spiritual sense would work well with roulette either. She wandered through several rooms until she found the poker and blackjack tables. Here was a set of games that she was confident her abilities could give her an edge on.

Quickly pulling a tarot to help point her in the right direction, Nozomi chose a Blackjack table that was being almost completely ignored by the other eager gamblers in the room. For whatever reason, nobody was interested in playing at this particular table. Ignoring the loud cheers and groans from the closer Poker tables, Nozomi sat down at the Blackjack table and gave the dealer her best 'I'm completely innocent and naïve' grin.

The dealer quickly learned that the innocent looking purple-haired girl that had approached his table was blessed by some sort of goddess of luck. She got between nineteen and twenty-one every round, without ever going over. He couldn't prove that she was cheating or even figure out how she was if that was the case. He could only continue dealing and hope that she would tire of this game and move on to someone else's table before he got into trouble for losing too much house money.

* * *

 ** _"It's sad to see a grown man cry." - By Maki_**

* * *

Rin was super duper excited about being in Las Vegas with Kayo-chin. She wanted to go everywhere and try out all the different things that the city had to offer. After the group had dispersed to go explore, she was all set to head out into the city and see as many sights as possible, but Hanayo had wanted to at least look around the hotel and casino for a bit first, and Rin would never leave Kayo-chin alone to go exploring by herself.

The two of them went around the casino's gaming floor, looking at the various games being played, but every time they tried to join a table, the dealer kindly told them that they were too young to play. Rin was a little disappointed, but she was quickly distracted by all of the various people excitedly moving about. They stopped for a little while to watch Nozomi play a card game, but they couldn't remain for too long, because there was a huge crowd watching as well, and Rin could hardly contain herself over the thought of seeing other interesting sights.

"Look over there nyah! It's a wedding!" Rin, holding Hanayo's hand so that they don't get separated in the crowd, had steered them toward a larger hall off the main area. The large doors were open and inside they could see the various guests and participants of a nicely organized wedding party.

"The bride looks very beautiful…" Hanayo looked a little wistful and Rin wondered if Kayo-chin wanted to wear a beautiful wedding dress at her own wedding. Rin had already decided that a traditional wedding would suit her better, but if Kayo-chin wanted to wear the dress, then Rin would do everything in her power to make it happen.

"Kayo-chin will also make a very beautiful bride. Rin is certain of it." Rin grinned happily at Hanayo as she stuttered an embarrassed thank you and smiled in return. She felt Hanayo grip her hand in a little squeeze and swung their joined hands as she looked about to see if there was anything else of interest to look at. Rin couldn't really follow the wedding, because she wasn't very good at understanding English, and so she was already ready to move on to other things.

Hanayo was starting to get tired from all the walking that they had done that morning, so even though she really wanted to continue looking around, Rin decided to find a place that they could sit down and rest for a short while. Not too far from the wedding hall was a smaller reception hall, and the inside was set up for a small party. There were a few people milling around, sitting on chairs or standing around chatting.

Hanayo sat down on a chair near the door gratefully. She loved spending time with Rin, but she just couldn't match her dear friend's energy. She stretched her tired arms above her head as she watched Rin excitedly moving around the room, getting into absolutely everything. She was vaguely aware that she might be getting hungry and wondered if it would be okay to eat something from the buffet tables set up across the room when Rin came charging back to her side.

"Kayo-chin! It's Elvis! Elvis is here nyah!" Hanayo was promptly dragged off to the next adjoining hall, where 'Elvis' was taking pictures with young couples in front of a brightly decorated backdrop. Hanayo didn't have the heart to tell Rin that the person couldn't possibly be the real Elvis Presley. Rin was such a huge fan that the knowledge would surely make her sad.

"Since we're here, why don't we get a picture with him Rin-chan? We can even ask him to sign it." The pure excitement that lit up Rin's eyes made the small deception worth it to Hanayo. The two of them joined the short line of couple waiting to get their picture taken. Hanayo, who was somewhat better at reading English, noted that the picture and autograph would cost about $10. She got the money out and paid the photographer before Rin could protest, stating that it was her treat.

" _Hey there little ladies."_ Hanayo responded to the greeting tentatively, uncertain if she had completely understood through the man's unusual accent. Rin just looked blankly excited. She didn't understand the greeting at all, but just having been spoken to by the King of Rock and Roll was enough to make her day.

Despite the language barrier, they managed to get into position and take a lovely picture. 'Elvis' signed the picture and Hanayo thanked him while Rin shook his hand enthusiastically. Immediately after that, Hanayo was once again dragged off by her precious friend, this time to the gift shop in order to buy a picture frame for the photo.

* * *

 ** _"No way, I wanted to see Elvis too!" – By Honoka_**


End file.
